The future is shrouded in an exciting and terrifying mystery.
The fact that anything could happen and anything could happen should excite my fellow optimists.
Technology is moving the slowest it ever will again from this point forward.
Professionally speaking, “adapt or die” has never been more true. It’s not about the most technically capable (that can vanish in a matter of weeks) or the biggest companies (many giants will fall in the next decade) but the most adaptable to change that will survive.
Part of adaptation is prediction: what’s about to happen?
Here are 10 things I’m anticipating.
You’ll work in a virtual office
As cool as the idea of the metaverse is, wearing a relatively massive device on your face to access it has made it less accessible.
That’s quickly changing.
At I/O 2024 in May, Google announced Project Astra. In their demonstration, a user wearing a pair of Gemini-powered glasses interacted with the world around her in real time.
Augmented reality.
While not the metaverse, it’s a significant step forward for the form factor of putting compute on our faces.
Meta’s advancements have been equally promising, launching Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses in a partnership with EssilorLuxottica.
This convergence of AI and hardware brings us closer to my prediction: commonplace virtual offices.
We’re already used to connecting with coworkers and colleagues over video calls. The natural evolution is toward something more immersive, as long as it’s as accessible as a webcam.
Think less like the Quest and more of a “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
It’ll start with meetings before becoming a way of work.
Professional connections through the metaverse will solve the long-standing barrier of connecting hybrid and remote teammates by creating a common meeting place that doesn’t require physical presence.
Beyond smart glasses and 3D webcams is the possibility of remote work through robotics with an AR/VR crossover. Line workers and field laborers control a robot through a virtual interface instead of putting their bodies on the line.
Not only does this open the possible age range of workers in the labor industry, it’ll skyrocket worker safety (until something happens to give robots human rights).
Given the infinite possibilities of the metaverse, virtual real estate will boom and become a company asset. Architects and interior designers will design for virtual spaces as much as physical, which isn’t as large of a leap as it sounds given the prevalence of 3D modeling in the design industry already.
Realtors like Ryan Serhant are leading the way.
One of the biggest ways to accelerate this will be the development and release of a common protocol for communicating, like HTTP is for the internet. Once accessing metaverse is as ubiquitous as website access it’ll be game over.
Keep your eye on Meta to bring something forward.
We’ll treat “AI” like we treat “internet” today
Anyone else sick of hearing about AI-powered features?
Development and accessibility of AI through projects like Meta Llama and ChatGPT have made it easy for anyone to get in the game.
Unfortunately, this lower barrier comes with the challenge of saturated solutions and a lower average quality.
My prediction is the universal integration of AI into almost everything we’re doing will become so commonplace we’ll think of it the same way we think of the internet.
AI will be a standard, expected part of everything we use.
Anyone else holding out for AI-powered trash cans that can automatically sort recycling while writing a book?
In my company, Tetheros, AI isn’t mentioned as a feature but we’re using it to personalize your onboarding experience and project initialization.
It’d be silly not to bring artificial intelligence into the platform, but it’s not the feature.
The outcomes it powers are.
Just as we no longer blink an eye when ordering an ‘online’ product or service, in the future we’ll view AI integration as a standard part of every tool and process, rather than a novelty to highlight.
Early adopters may pay a premium for advanced AI capabilities, but over time these will become commoditized features built into all software and services by default.
Rise of the freelancer economy
Falling tenures and confusing benefits packages will give way to more contract-based work on the blockchain.
As of 2022, the average job tenure was only 4.1 years compared to 4.6 years a decade prior. Cultural sentiments like /r/antiwork, quiet quitting, and coffee badging have popularized a contempt for the workplace.
The practice of connecting your “retirement” to your employment in an age where many younger folks don’t expect the chance to retire also drives a wedge in the traditional model. Benefits packages are generally less appealing when the youngest slice of the workforce won’t even stick around for more than four years.
Meanwhile, there’s also never been a better time in modern history to make money as a creator.
Goldman Sachs predicts the creator economy – people earning money with their personal brand – could reach half a trillion dollars in the next few years.
In the boardroom, fractional CXO positions have exploded in the last few years: people filling executive positions virtually or part-time.
Opportunity and movement are huge themes in the workforce.
Hiring full time employees that don’t want to be there, have a chance to make more money working for themselves, or aren’t allured by a retirement package means the contractor and freelance economy will slowly take over.
It won’t replace or grow larger than traditional employment, but younger companies and employees will prefer it as an alternative.
Hiring a freelancer bypasses the risk and liabilities of traditional hires: training, benefits, performance management, and any disputes over intellectual property. Contracts clear a lot of gray areas and don’t force either party into a long-term commitment.
The convergence of blockchain-based smart contracts may accelerate this too.
Blockchain offers a rapid way for workers to move between companies, process payments, and manage their contract lifecycle. How this plays out is still not well understood.
A growing, fractional, nomadic workforce will lead to more “third place” offices.
Expect bookstores, gyms, coffee shops and McDonalds to invest in more office-friendly environments. They’ll want a slice of the new market.
Merit-based hiring will be necessary
As AI makes it easier to simulate expertise, hiring will focus more on proven work and personal networks, rather than formal education.
Trustworthiness and authenticity will quickly become the most valuable assets in the job market.
This may be driven by blockchain developments as well: a solution for crediting work to your identify.
It’ll be too hard for employers to efficiently tell who actually knows what they claim versus who is faking it as a generative AI power user.
Although the skill of wielding AI is an important part of the future, an authentic understanding and portfolio of results will matter more in most fields.
The greatest opportunities will be increasingly human. Small businesses will hire even more from their personal networks than anywhere else – a great irony in the age of unbridled connection.
Cybersecurity and data engineering salaries will boom
The number one asset a company has is their data.
As home grown LLMs continue to grow in accessibility and adoption, the ability to use first-party data for improving your product or service becomes a businesses greatest competitive advantage.
To capitalize on this, companies need data engineering expertise.
Demand will continue to rise for talent capable of collecting, managing, analyzing, and utilizing first-party data, artificial intelligence, and large language models for business applications.
Data will be the moat.
Naturally, cybersecurity work will explode on both sides as companies need to protect the data they collect and consumers seek solutions that protect their data.
Cybersecurity will be the fastest path toward financial prosperity in the future.
Everyone will have a virtual assistant
It’s not like virtual assistants aren’t already peeking their byte-sized heads at us. Nearly everyone in the developed world has access to some form of “smart” device.
The irony is these devices are completely dumb in the face of what’s to come.
The synergy of AI and IoT has already begun.
As of May 2024, Apple and OpenAI have discussed a partnership that could bring generative AI directly into the Apple ecosystem, potentially including Siri. Google has Gemini.
Integrating generative AI puts a new spin on smart. Instead of something that tells you the weather or reads you text messages, our personal AIs will be capable of assuming a level of intelligence indistinguishable from a human.
They’ll order groceries. Setup appointments. Remind you where you left your keys. Send a rideshare to pick your inlaws up from the airport.
These advancements may seem bleak to some, but the capabilities will be there. Assistants will not longer be something only the wealthy can afford, similar to personal drivers (Uber/Lyft).
As costs fall and adoption rises in AI tools, it’ll be normal to integrate biometrics, schedules, tasks, and networks into an assistant capable of predicting and managing every aspect of our life at all hours.
Hourly compensation packages disappear
A culture that values flexibility and performance-based compensation will popularize salaries and bounties.
The rising sentiment that workers should be paid for their output more than their hours will lead companies to adopt flexible work policies that generally ignore hours worked in favor of the roles and responsibilities people fulfill.
Underneath the 4-day work week movement is a value for outcome-based work.
The hourly model won’t disappear, but will not be the default.
For service workers, hourly wages create the wrong incentive. They’re penalized for working faster because it takes less time and generates less revenue, and incentivized to work slower because it generates more revenue.
Service buyers don’t always like the uncertainty an hourly job creates unless there are limits and caps in place to prevent overcharging.
A salaried model also accommodates flexible worker schedules without worrying about how long someone worked, but accountability measures and micromanagement may increase as employers want to ensure they are getting what they paid for from workers.
Bounties – specific outcomes like an oil change – allow workers to make money based on accomplishments and contributions, enforced by the blockchain.
IT departments and their budgets will shrink
As the workforce grows more tech-literate, self-sufficient, and distributed, traditional IT departments will have less to do.
Generative AI will shift digital transformation toward the business, away from traditional gatekeepers. IT departments will shrink dramatically as the workforce becomes more self-sufficient and tech-literate, with digital natives making up a majority of the workforce in the next generation.
The widespread use of AI capabilities and distributed workers will make Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies necessary. This is not only due to a mostly decentralized workforce that makes management tricky, but also because hardware and software are evolving so fast that device management becomes too hard to deal with.
With employees increasingly managing their own tech needs, the role of IT will shift from hands-on support to more strategic functions, such as cybersecurity and data governance.
Companies will invest more in training their employees to handle basic IT issues, further reducing the need for large IT departments.
Automation tools will handle routine maintenance and troubleshooting, streamlining operations and cutting costs.
The Fortune 500 rapidly flips
The Fortune 500 will flip with the rapid rise of innovative new companies using AI to work faster and more efficiently than the large, bureaucratic organizations that rose to prominence in the last age.
These new companies will leverage cutting-edge technologies to disrupt traditional industries, creating new business models and revenue streams.
AI-driven companies will outperform their competitors by optimizing operations, reducing costs, and providing superior customer experiences. They will be more agile and responsive to market changes, allowing them to quickly capitalize on new opportunities.
The traditional corporate giants, burdened by legacy systems and bureaucratic inertia, will struggle to keep pace with these nimble, tech-savvy upstarts.
The bureaucratic giants that fail to adapt will be overtaken by more agile, innovative firms that prioritize human potential and decentralized decision-making.
This revolution in organizational structure and culture is paving the way for a new era of business, where the most adaptable and forward-thinking companies will lead the charge.
Tetheros powers the world’s most important projects
The future of work is community.
Collaborating on important work should be as simple as how we watch, react, share, and shop.
The answer is a social workspace platform that blends productivity and community for purpose-driven people.
The future workforce will thrive on a platform that enables collaboration at scale. Innovation will live at the intersection of purpose and community, powered by tools that leverage our social expectations instead of subverting them.
Get started with Tetheros today to lead the future of work.